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Just Starting Out?

So you’ve finally decided that strong is the new sexy and you want to start lifting heavy, but you just don’t know where to begin. I am often asked by both men and women about how to get started with weight training, so here is an overview! I’m not going to spoon feed you a specific training routine or diet because they both need to be catered to the individual, but instead I’m going to help you help yourself. After all, that’s how I did it.

Find a training routine. This is probably the most obvious part of the equation, but people often have a hard time knowing where to find this. It’s very important to find a quality routine written by a professional. Don’t do this yourself unless you’ve been training for several years and have an idea of what you’re doing. Believe it or not, but there’s an art to writing training splits. Some places where you can find quality training splits are:

–Bodybuilding.com: You can spend hours at a time reading the articles on this website. There are also tons of training programs you can follow. I learned A LOT from this website.

-Hire a trainer: There’s nothing wrong with hiring a trainer. This stuff isn’t easy! I’ve hired a couple of trainers in the past, albeit, they were online trainers, but they outlined training and nutrition programs for me. I gained A LOT from them and I have learned what works and what doesn’t work for me.

2. Schedule it in. Make a date with yourself that you won’t break. Put your workouts on your calendar until you know you will definitely not skip it. I go very early in the morning. No excuses (unless I’m dying in bed with an illness or it’s a scheduled week off for me). I have absolutely nothing else to do at 5:30 am, so there is no reason I shouldn’t be going to the gym. If it’s important to you, you will find or make time for it. If your excuse for not going in the morning is “Ohhh…but I need my 8 hours of sleep”, then I ask “Why not go to bed earlier? Or, why not go at night?” Frankly, there are no excuses.

3. Gradually “clean” up your diet. You aren’t going to notice any results if you don’t change the way you eat. I wouldn’t suggest going from all horrible, processed foods to all healthy, clean alternatives overnight. You might find that to be way too overwhelming and throw in the towel before giving this new lifestyle a chance. Stop eating garbage and start eating good, natural food.

If you’re looking for something right now, my idol Jamie Eason has just come out with a 12 week training video series on www.bodybuilding.com. She’ll tell you what to eat, how to train, and what supplements to take. This training series will be released August 16th. That’s this Tuesday! If you’re interested, check out this link: Jamie Eason’s LiveFit 12 Week Trainer.

And those are the basics! Now obviously, stating them is easier than putting them to practice, but you don’t need to be perfect right off the bat. Like I say a lot, this is a lifestyle and these changes take time. But you’ve got this….I know you do.